Crew Profile: Geordi LaForge

The extraordinary career of LeVar Burton

Season six was a turning point for LeVar Burton, as it sees his directorial debut. He would go on to direct episodes in all the franchise shows after TNG as well, and he and co-star Jonathan Frakes have been fighting it out for the most number of directed Trek episodes for decades (currently, Frakes is in the lead, thirty to twenty nine). But directing was not something Burton had ever considered when he set off on his acting adventure.

Burton was still an undergraduate at USC’s drama department when he was cast in the important role of Kunta Kinte in Roots, which debuted on ABC television in January 1977, when Burton was twenty years old. He was nominated for three Emmies for the role, but won none of them. In a pattern that was to follow him throughout his career, Roots did win Emmies… in Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing for a Series.

On the back of this barnstorming performance, Burton picked up a number of roles in TV movies, including in 1983 one called Emergency Room, which was intended as a pilot for a TV Show. Also working on that project was producer Robert H. Justman - a veteran of classic Trek, who would also work on the first season of TNG. It was Justman who recommended Burton to Gene Roddenberry…